Don't Look Behind You
by KittyCaterpillar
Summary: Rishy has led the sheltered life of a Jedi youngling. But when she's six, Order 66 decides to shatter her home. She finds herself short on friends and with enemies to spare. Will the help of a ghost be enough to save her?
1. Chapter 1 Dishonest Blue

**I don't own Star Wars**

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"Um…" A little voice sounded, Dents looked down. Two younglings stood there. One was a human girl, with bouncy brown curls and green eyes. The other was a blond haired human boy. "We made awl you troowpers 'dese." Her tiny hand held out a small plate of—it took the clone Captain a minute to recognize them—cookies. They were burnt, but it was certainly a thoughtful gesture of the youngling.

"Ah, thanks. I'll make sure to get these to the rest of the troops." He smiled, even though he had his helmet on. Jedi younglings, despite their youth, could probably pick up on his gratitude.

"We really hope you like them." The boy spoke up, his voice held a thick accent. Then the two younglings grinned and skipped away. Dents heard the boy say, "I think he liked them Rishy."

"I know" their voices were fading now, "I couwd feel something in da Fowce Liam…"

Shaking his head, Dents went to go give the "cookies" to the rest of the squadron.

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She was shaking, backed up against a wall. A trooper with armor she recognized leveled a blaster at her. She could feel tears welling in her eyes so she squeezed them shut. But all it did was make the tears come out the corners. _I don't want to die, I'm only six standard years._ She thought. She looked up at the trooper. He tightened his finger on the trigger. Then stopped, and tilted his head. "Rishy?" the helmet muffled the word, but she knew her own name. She nodded.

"Please don't hurt me." She whispered.

"I'm afraid I don't have a choice." The clone lifted his head, then he thumbed something on his blaster and fired.

Rishy wanted to moan. But she didn't dare. Clones were still walking all around her. _I should be dead._ She reached out with her primitive abilities in the Force. Warm fuzzy shapes floated around her. _That means there are still clones here._ She didn't understand what she was feeling at first, fear was a stranger to Rishy. But that description seemed all-to accurate for her emotions. She'd felt panic when the clone had been about to shoot her. But now fear was settling in. _Why aren't I dead?_ She wondered, she didn't know much about blasters. Her tummy hurt, but it wasn't the kind of hurt that meant skin had been broken.

Trying to calm herself, she reached out again to the force, looking for Liam, she always knew his shape, it was. _The clones are going away!_ She felt the last warm fuzzy leave the room. Then a hot sharp outline entered, more powerful than she was used to but… _A Jedi!_ Knowing that only the Jedi would be able to see her, she opened her eyes. She saw a boot, then, raising her eyes, she was a head. She knew this Jedi.

"Master Skywalker!" she whispered, relieved. With a smile she sat up, then she sucked in a breath. _His eyes…_ Master Skywalker's eyes had always been an honest blue, but now they were…_yellow_. He activated his lightsaber without speaking. Then brought it back to cut her down. She made a small frightened noise—then another fuzzy shape came from nowhere.

"Anakin." A sad voice cautioned. She looked to her right, to see the outline of a bearded man. He was taller than most humans. But that wasn't what struck her, it was the fact that she could see through him! "Anakin what have you done?" The man looked down at her and whispered, "Run little one, don't look behind you."

Scrambling backwards, Rishy made it out of lightsaber range. _I won't die, not today._ She rushed to her feet and ran down familiar once safe and friendly corridors until she got to where she wanted to be. A small service entrance, too small for adults, but she had seen Master Yoda use it. _I don't know where it leads, but its my only hope._ The young girl tapped the wall next the little secret exit; a panel slid open. Rishy let out a breath she hadn't know she'd been holding. Then she vanished into the darkness as the door slid shut behind her.

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**A thanks to Lady Vader, Darth Comrade, Evil Tree, and Frodo's Girl Forever for commenting on Ahsoka's Fate!**

**I tried to get Rishy's perspective right, since she is six. I'm not sure how well I did, so advice is definitely wanted.**


	2. Chapter 2 Your Name Is Hope

_**I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS!**_

Rishy's breathing sounded loud in her own ears. The silence was deafening. _I want to be home._ She felt her way along the tunnel, her hands passing over rough and cold stone walls. The bumps and ridges made pictures under her fingertips. They told her stories, or at least they seemed to. Whether she was imagining it or not, it was comforting to her.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever. _Maybe it does._ Rishy felt her heart rate go up. She tried to calm herself, but it seemed impossible. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare. _No, this _reality. At that thought, Rishy stopped walking. She stopped and considered where she was. She couldn't see, so she listened. Soft sounds began to tickle her ears. Whooshing sounds passed overhead. Rishy concentrated on it, tried to place it… _It's airspeeders! I'm _underneath_ the roads of Coruscant._ Rishy looked up, a soft circle of light fell on her face, someone had removed the cover of a storm drain! A way out, but it was too high up. A good head above what her arms could reach—when she jumped. With a sigh, Rishy walked away from the opening. About fifty paces along, she noticed a change, the ground was tilted upward! Sucking in air, Rishy began to run.

"Have you found where the youngling went?" Darth Vader growled. His face was twisted into an ugly grimace.

"No, not yet sir." The clone replied.

"Notify me as soon as you do." Vader threw over his shoulder as he walked—that word didn't quite seem to fit what Vader was doing—away.

"Where are you going my Lord?" The clone asked.

"She was six years old, she wouldn't have known to 'play dead', which means someone stunned her." The Sith snarled in reply, as if that answer should be obvious.

_Is he suggesting a clone stunned her? Instead of killed her? That would be disobeying orders!_ It was inconceivable to him that any clone would turn traitor. _The Republic really is falling apart._

Rishy knew she had been running for awhile. Finally, she felt her figure slam into something. She took a step back, and turned to the right, she smacked into a wall. Panicking, she spun to her left, and smacked into a wall. _No!_ It was dead end, she had no way out. It would only be a matter of time before the clones discovered the secret entrance, and she trapped in the tunnel, she would die in its confines. Pressing her little back against a wall, she slid down it and tucked her knees to her chin. Then she began to sob. _Stomp. Thunk. Clunk. _She could hear them coming for her. She started shaking, and her sobbing grew louder. _I don't want to die!_ She was on the verge of wailing when a hand gripped her shoulder. She stopped, all her tears and sadness dissolved.

The hand was unarmored.

That fact registered with the six-year-old before she even looked into the face of a man. He was human, with soft green eyes and red hair. Rishy sniffled, and looked into his eyes, "You're not a clone trooper." She sighed with relief.

"Ah, no." the man chuckled, "I'm not a clone trooper. What are you doing in a storm drain little one?" He smiled bemusedly.

"This is a storm drain?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yah, for flash floods, what'd you think it was?" He shook his head.

"A tunnel." Rishy replied.

"So what are your _doing_ here?" the man pressed.

"Running from enemies." She answered, using one of the bigger words she knew.

"Oh?"

"They used to be nice. They used to be friends." She shrugged, now that her adrenaline rush had passed, she was beginning to feel sleepy.

"Are you running from clone troopers?" he tilted his head to the side, and crouched down on her level. She nodded. "Are you a Youngling?" She nodded again. "What's your name little one?"

"Rishy." She mumbled.

"Rishy?" She nodded. "Well, if you want to live, that's not your name, and your not a Youngling." At first, Rishy didn't understand the man, then realization clicked—if she wanted to live, didn't want the clones to kill her, she had to change. She couldn't be a Youngling anymore. It's so hard to ask an adult to leave their life behind, all their memories—their past loves, their possessions, and even if they were Jedi, their personality. Rishy had no such things holding her to herself.

So as she looked into the man's eyes once more she answered, "I understand."

He nodded, "Your name is…" he looked up, searching for something, then he looked down at her, "Hope."

She nodded, "My name is Hope."

The man smiled sadly, "And you're my recently departed wife's daughter. My step-daughter."

Hope stood up, "And I got lost. I ran into an open opening chasing after a…" she trailed off.

The man stood up as well, "An armored rat, you've always liked odd critters." The little girl smiled, she was only six, and yet she understood the risk this man had just taken by protecting her. "Come on."

Teri wasn't sure what he was doing. He was a reporter, trying to get the latest scoop. And he'd gotten it! The problem was, if he did anything with what he knew about operation Knightfall, then this little girl would die.

In essence, it didn't make a whole lot of sense, he was adopting a little girl who he didn't even know. But…_She looks just like Elice._ The fact that this little child looked so much like his late wife, perhaps the Force was guiding him to help her. So it was without regrets that he put his life in danger, "Come on." He held out his hand to the little six-year-old. She grinned.

"Okay father." Her little face warmed into smile that was so out of place with their surroundings. It seemed to him that she'd done what only young children can do, she'd considered him family after knowing him for just over a minute.

They walked back the way they'd come. They didn't hear any footsteps until they reached the opening. "Up you go." He whispered to the child. He picked her up and lifted her through the hole, it was technically nighttime, though really it was always nighttime in the Undercity of Coruscant. Next, Teri propelled himself through the opening, and then placed the cover on swiftly. He could hear the steps of the clones as they ran past. He looked up to see Hope sitting there patiently. He met her eyes, it had surprised him at first—and now it seemed that it would surprise him for the rest of his life—how much intelligence was held within eyes so young. They were not wise eyes, for wisdom comes with age, but they were intelligent.

"Where are we going now?" Hope asked.

"We're going to see a friend of mine, he'll help us get your story straightened out."

"I thought we had a story." The child tilted her head to the side inquisitively.

"Yes, but you see, we need proof of that story. In that Temple, was an entire file on you, that has a picture of you, your age, and your health records. Unless we get rid of that, and give you a new file, the clones will find you." He explained patiently, and somehow he knew the child understood what he had said. And if not all of it, well, then enough that it was impressive to say the least. Suddenly, it struck him that they were sitting in the middle of a walkway, in the Undercity of Coruscant, talking about what they were going to do next. "Let's get going." He stood up, and then helped up Hope. He felt her grip tighten on his fingers. Then, little hand clasped in big hand, they made their way to his speeder. _I hope I know what I'm doing._ He muttered in his thoughts.

_A thank you to My Lady Vader and darkangel1994 for your reviews!_


	3. Chapter 3 A Lesson In Lies

Rishy, no, Hope clutched the large hand tightly. The man kept his head down, eyes on the ground, shoulders hunched over. Hope knew this was a dangerous area. She figured the man knew what he was doing, so she copied him. But something made her look up. The soft blue haze appeared in front of her. The bearded man, or ghost, was back.

"Youngling—" the ghost started. But Hope silenced him with a glare.

"Quiet." She hissed, "Someone will hear you."

"They can not hear me child. Only you can hear and see me." The ghost said silently.

"Why?" Hope breathed.

"Because, you are strong in the Force." The ghost smiled, "Youngling" he received a glare from the six-year-old, "Child." He corrected himself, "You must keep your chin up, and your head held high."

Hope shook her head, and whispered, "But the man—"

"Does not know what he's doing, he is from up there." The ghost indicated Upper Coruscant. "You two are attracting unwanted attention, you look weak. Tell him to raise his head, tell him you have been trained for these situations so that he'll listen."

"But that's lying." Hope mouthed.

"Then it is a good lie." The ghost whispered and looked behind him. Hope followed his gaze; some shady figures were looking in her direction.

_A good lie._ Hope told herself, and then she turned to the man. "Keep your chin up." She whispered, "Master Yoda said when you're in rough parts of Coruscant, to keep your chin up." She clenched her teeth against the lie, Jedi, even Younglings, did not lie.

"You sure he meant that literally?" The man whispered. Hope nodded, and the man did as told. The shady figures receded to their shadows.

This was a lesson for Hope, one that she would not soon forget; people wouldn't follow what she said, but if she said someone else had said it, someone of power, then, they listened. "Who were you talking to anyway?" The man asked her as they reached his speeder. Hope looked behind her at the ghost, but he was already gone.

_A good lie. Hope is a good lie._ "The Force." She said with confidence, then looked back again and whispered, softly so the man could not hear, "I think."

Teri had thought at first the child was talking to him. But she had said to be quiet, and he wasn't talking. She'd had a conversation with air, and then told him to do the exact opposite of what they'd both been doing five paces ago. And when he'd asked her who she'd been talking to… _She said she was talking to the Force, I mean, I've never heard of Jedi talking to the Force, but maybe it's different when their little?_ Not for the first time since he'd made his decision, he asked himself, _What have I gotten myself into?_ He was beginning to realize that there was a reason Force-Sensitive children were taken away from their parents at an early age. But he didn't have regrets, no, he didn't have regrets. How could he? He'd only known the kid for a half hour.

Hope watched from the back seat of the speeder as Coruscant sped by. At first it had been ugly dingy buildings, with arachnid-web cracks and Hawk-bat droppings. Then, as they began to ascend, she watched the cracks disappear, and the dropping became less frequent. Next, the buildings became colored, first in the grays of faded paint, and then in vibrant hues. As they climbed even farther, windows began to dot the walls. First, they were windows with metal bars; then they became entirely glass. At one point, their speeder reached a cloud bank, overhead was a grid work of lasers to prevent speeders from going up any farther. Hope became frightened and confused, but the man just pulled over to a small booth, where a lady sat. The woman was human, in her thirties, and far too young to be gray-haired already. But Hope could see that despite the woman's dye job, gray was growing in at her roots.

The man flashed a small card, and the woman pressed a button, the lasers opened in one section, and the man pulled over to it. As they passed, Hope met the woman's eyes; they were too old and weary on a young once beautiful face.

Hope didn't—couldn't—know this, but the woman's face had been destroyed by bad lies. The woman, hoping to get a promotion, and climb the ladder so to speak, had listened to a friend and bought certain beauty product. It had disfigured the young lady's face, pockmarked it and discolored it, and the woman had been cast aside by society. She'd lost her husband, her friends, and even her family had pulled away from her. The woman had never gotten the promotion.

It was after the speeder bike pulled past the cloud bank, the sudden change came. The woman that greeted them on the way up was at least in her late fifties. This woman had dark red hair, and she was glamour-ed with false beauty and ornamented with gaudy, most likely expensive jewelry. While all the way up, the changes had been gradual, now, it seemed between one floor; the shift was dramatic. Shiny colorful metal walls, and expensive speeders. The holo-ads, that had been sleazy up until this point—although Hope didn't register this fact, she did register a change—became classy and polished. Windows were even more polished, until they shone blindingly.

This would be another lesson for Hope, there was a top class, and a bottom class, and only one floor in between. However, if you didn't have the right mode of transportation, good luck moving up.

Finally, it seemed the speeder had come to its destination. The vehicle perched on a circular landing platform; that stuck out—not unlike a mushroom from a tree—from the circular richly colored blue building.

"We're here." The man said tiredly.

_I should stop thinking of him as "the man", according to our story, he's my father._ She decided to try it out. Her _father_ got out of the speeder, and came around to her door to help her out.

"Come on dear." He picked her up, but he didn't set her down. She could tell he was nervous, and wanted to get inside the building quickly. Hope was beginning to notice how many clone troopers littered the area now that they were out of the lower city.

The building they entered into was classy but dark. Heavy smells lathered the air. Her _father_ quickly turned left, even though they were inside, he had not put her down. Hope looked behind him, over his shoulder to the other hallway they could have chosen, down at the end was a door, she could hear armour clanking and the shifting of feet. _Troopers are interrogating everyone here; they're looking for Jedi who might have escaped._ Hope sucked in air; fear began to claw at her gut. Then she let it out. She could feel her thoughts narrowing to _get away! Troopers! _And _run! Don't look behind you!_ She didn't try to push those thoughts away; instead she concentrated on what minimal training she had. She sifted through her memories and came across one technique that would help her, Jedi Flow. A trick taught to Younglings to help them overcome fears. Hope thought of all the blocks in her mind's eye, and let the Force wash over them, loosen them, and let them drift away. What she was left with was clear thoughts.

"Daddy." She whispered, "Turn around, go back, to the right."

"That will bring us closer to troopers dear."

"I know, that's the idea," Hope then forced her lie to form into words, "Master Yoda says, sometimes the best place to be, is right under your enemies nose."

Had Teri known Master Yoda, he would have known that Master Yoda speaks backwards, and so if Hope was repeating something she'd heard, would have told him it backwards. But Teri didn't know Yoda, so he turned around, and went back to the right.

Hope swallowed, she wasn't sure this was a good plan. But then she heard the click-clack behind her of clone troopers. _If we'd continued to go the way we had, it would have looked like we were trying to avoid the troopers in the next room._ That realization was a blow to Hope's fear. In her confidence, Hope decided to make certain the clones didn't suspect her as a Youngling. With the impatience of a normal child, Hope tugged on her _father's_ sleeve. "Daddy, I want down!" she whined. At first, the man gave her a confused look; he'd begun to pick up his pace, and setting her down, would slow him. But Hope gave him a determined gaze and he relented. She made sure to walk normally, and slowed her _father_ down. Eventually, the clones caught up with them.

Her _father_ gently urged her to give the two troopers room to pass. But the troopers didn't pass.

"Hello civilians, we're performing a routine check on everyone." The trooper stated, the mike that transferred his voice from inside his helmet, to outside his helmet made his voice static and _robotic_. In Rishy's experience, troopers always took off their helmets when speaking to civilians. Hope was learning this was not the case. "Your identifications please."

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A big thanks to My Lady Vader, darkangel1994, and The Name Is Unimportant for your reviews!

This is one of the slower chapters, it speeds up after this... I hope you enjoyed it!


	4. Chapter 4 Erased

**I DON'T OWN STAR WARS!**

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"Our identifications? We don't have them on us at the moment." Her _fa_-father stuttered nervously.

"Oh really?" The trooper snarled.

"I'm really very sorry—"

"So are we. Perhaps we can look you up in the system. Your names?" the second trooper snapped.

_But my _file_ hasn't been changed yet!_ Hope swallowed her panic and said, "My name's Hope." In a bright and cheery voice.

"Hope what?" The first trooper demanded. Hope didn't know her last name. She also didn't know anything about last names. So instinctively, she tried every answer she could think, to see if it would placate the white-shelled monster.

"I like armoured rats. Have you ever seen a armoured rat? They're so cute! Hawk-bats are really cute too! Why do people eat their eggs if they're so cute? Do you like Hawk-bat eggs? Have you eaten them? Why are you wearing a shell? Can you take off your shells? My friend Liam had a pet and he, his pet not him, could take off its shell. Do you like shells? Do people eat shells? Why are you wearing hats inside? I never wear hats inside. Ma… ma, my mama says its rude. Or she did, she's dead now. What's dead? Where do people go? We're going to her wake. What's a wake? Does it mean she'll wake up again? Cause' last time she wouldn't, no matter how many times I asked her to. Do you know why she wouldn't wak—"

"You're heading to a wake?" The second trooper shifted uneasily. "The one on the second level?"

"No, her mother's wake isn't until… a little later this evening." Her father looked down sadly.

"They must be legitimate." The second trooper turned to the first, "If they'd been lying, they would have said they were going to that wake, that nonexistent wake."

"Yah, all right. Move along, move along."

Her father gently clutched Hope's shoulder, and they continued down the hallway they'd been going down. Something Hope didn't know, both hallways led to the same place. He walked swiftly down the right hallway, and they reached a turbolift. "Now Hope, we're going to see a good friend of your mothers." He said as the door slid shut. Outside, Hope could hear the clone troopers entering another room. She stretched her primitive Force senses through the room. It wasn't just one room, it was many connected rooms, and every one radiated love, and safety. The people inside had cocooned themselves in a shelter of trust, then the troopers entered. They were like a storm, fear ran rapid through the rooms. Love and safety died on the doorstep.

In the elevator, Hope jumped back, and bumped into someone. She turned around and saw that she had bumped into a female sullustan. The sullustan was her height, with four lips and large black beady eyes. But Hope was not frightened. Back at the Temple, there had been many sullustans. She had been friends with sullustans. What Hope did not know, was that a normal human child of six years would not have seen many non-humans. As it was a popular belief that human children who were too young, and were around too many aliens, would grow up to be criminals and crooks. Most human children would by now be backing up into their parents, and hiding their faces. Hope just smiled and said, "I'm sorry miss, I'm not used to riding turbolifts yet. It's so hard to stay standing." Hope grinned at the shocked sullustan, who was thankfully, the only other person on the turbolift.

Teri gaped at Hope's reaction to the sullustan, and as soon as they reached the next floor, he ushered Hope off quickly. _Oh Hope, you don't make this easy do you?_ He whisked Hope into his arms, and spun to his left. Teri began to jog, trying to get away from the turbolift. _How many times is this going to happen? How many times in our lives will I be reminded that she isn't a normal child?_ He raced through the corridor. When they came to the next turbolift, he was relieved to find that it was empty. As soon as the doors closed, he set Hope down and punched in their floor. Amazingly, the turbolift didn't stop at any floors on their way to their destination. When the doors opened on the bottom floor, Teri picked up Hope again. The child didn't protest, he could tell that she knew they were in a hurry. When Teri came to a certain section of the building, he went in the back door of a cantina. It was one cantina in a chain, but this was where, at this time of day, you were likely to find the owner. The door was often unlocked, as it was now. Teri burst through the entrance sucking in air.

"Teri? How good to see you!" the waitress droid smiled. "We haven't seen you since Elice died. Very sorry about that by the—"

"I need. To talk. To Dex. Now!" Teri gasped as he set down Hope.

"Oh, okay dear. You want anything to drink?"

"No!"

Hope gave a cursory glance to the room she'd just entered. It was a small back kitchen that smelled of foods Hope had never dreamed were edible. But although it smelled bad, in the Force it felt good. Like her favorite dish, or a lazy morning watching a history holofilm—Rishy liked those mornings, where the Younglings would get dressed in their "comfy" clothes and gather round the holo projector on cushions. But Hope knew that although the Force was lulling, something important was happening. She looked up in time to see a rather large creature coming in. The creature wore a grease stained apron shirt and pants. He had two airsacks under his jaw. All-in-all, just like the sullustan, he should have been intimidating to a child like Hope.

"Teri! Good to see you, how have you been?" The creature asked. Hope decided that this creature was friend.

"Here and there. Dex, I-we, need your help."

_Teri? Hmm, his name must be Teri, the creatures name must be Dex._ Hope decided.

"What can I do?" Dex asked looking at Hope, she smiled and waved. Teri didn't get a chance to respond before Dex frowned, "Oh, I see."

"She's a Youngling. Has word gotten around to you from all your sources yet about—"

Dex cut him off, "The massacre? Yah, word's reached my ears. What can I do to help."

"She needs a new identity, preferably that of Elice's daughter." Teri spread his hands placatingly.

"That won't be a problem. I have a friend who can help us, a Jedi." Dex rubbed where, on a human at least, his chin would be.

"Won't he be dead? With the massacre and all?" Teri asked.

"No, this is Kenobi we're talking about. I trust he'll still be alive." Dex then turned around, and opened a door, "Come into my office." He tossed over his shoulder as he entered the room. Hope and Teri followed him.

The office wasn't spacious, but it was cozy. Holo-pics lined the walls, showing friends, and family, and accomplishments. One that Hope found rather sweet, was a holo of Dex when the restaurant was first opened, he was proudly holding up some kind of cooking tool, and in the top right corner of the picture, you could see someone's thumb. Hope thought it told more stories than any perfect picture could. Then she shook her head and brought herself back to the current situation.

"Master Kenobi! I'm glad to see you're all right." Dex was saying. Hope looked over to see a holo of Master Kenobi on Dex's desk. She gasped.

Behind the Jedi Master was the inside of the Temple. She could see bodies of friends carelessly strewn about. Blaster marks lined the walls. There were hardly any clone bodies, either that or they'd all been taken away by now.

"Well, I suppose I'm all right. How are you? I know there's another reason you've contacted me Dex. Because this isn't the best time…" The Jedi Master tiredly rubbed his temples.

"There is. We have a Youngling here." Dex beckoned her over, and so Hope stepped in front of the holocam.

"I can see that." Master Kenobi looked surprised, the Master pulled his eyebrows down, "I'm afraid we really can't stop by and pick her up..."

"That's not necessary, we have arrangements for her, we just need you to help us make them legitimate." Dex shrugged.

"You mean you want me to send you the access codes to her file?"

"Exactly." Dex nodded.

"I can't, if I do, the troopers will track it. I'll have to change it right here. Tell me, what information, besides the obvious—that she's a Youngling—do you want me to change?" The Jedi Master seemed to be fiddling with something, then he gave a nod and turned back to the holocam. "What's her name?"

Hope answered him, "My name is Rishy Kishtam." Rishy piped up.

"I don't suppose you know how to spell it?" The Jedi master frowned.

"Uh, no." Rishy felt her face form into a frightened expression.

"Not a problem. I've found your file." Kenobi seemed to squint at something, then jerked his head back up, surprised, "Oh my."

"What is it?" Dex asked.

"Nothing, just tell me what information you want me to change."

"We need you to make her the daughter of Elice Sein." Teri put in. Hope noticed the Jedi Master didn't click or touch any buttons.

_Weird._ She thought, but that thought was lost rather quickly.

"And if you could change her name to Hope Sein." Teri finished. This time, the Jedi seemed to be clicking some things.

"Done." The Jedi Master turned around behind him, "I'm sorry but I've got to go, I can't send the file to you, but I've erased her from the Jedi archives. That should give you some time Dex to find a good hacker and have her file codes transferred to wherever—" the transmission cut.

Teri had never ventured to the under city of Coruscant in his whole life, until he'd decided to get the scoop, and now again for Hope. Elice had once told him that if he ever needed a dirty job done, and done right, that there was only one person to choose. She'd also told him where to find said person.

He could still remember her words, "You'll find him sulking at the Blue Bantha, every night after most folks have gone home. He'll be the blue duros in the corner booth."

Teri entered the Blue Bantha, it was, to his surprise, that he found a blue duros sulking in the corner booth, surrounded by far too many empty glasses to be a good sign.

Elice's voice continued to whisper in his ear, "He never got over her death."

Teri remembered this conversation well, and what he had said, "Someone he loved died?"

Elice had laughed, "Someone he loved? Oh no." Elice had sighed and shaken her head, "She was his enemy, and he wasn't the one who killed her."

Teri had gulped, as he did now. _This is a man who was upset because he's not the one who killed his enemy…_

"Who was she? How did she die?" Teri had asked, he hadn't, in all honesty, expected Elice to answer. His wife had a habit of withholding information.

He had been surprised when she had said, "She was a Jedi, a young Padawan of seventeen. The Padawan of the Hero With No Fear." Elice had absent-mindedly waved her hand, "Her Master had been assigned on a mission where she couldn't follow. She had been too skilled, too young, and promoted too fast." Elice had looked down sadly, "And it killed her." Then his wife had tossed her head back in laughter, "Or more accurately, Count Dooku killed her."

Now, Teri cautiously approached the corner booth where the blue duros bounty hunter sat and asked, "Cad Bane?"

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**At some point, the story will jump forward a couple of years... it took me forever to post this chapter! I had to rewrite part of it, because my computer lost the story, thank goodness for backing things up!**

**A side note: Hope in her rambling almost says "Master" but corrects it to mean "mama"**

**A thank-you to My Lady Vader, darkangel1994 and The Name is Unimportant for reviewing!**


	5. Chapter 5 Forgetting Hope

**_I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS!!_**

The duros looked up, "Yah, I'm Bane. Wha'd'ya want?" he demanded in a slurred voice.

"Um-" Teri stumbled over his tongue, "I was told you were the only one to ask to do a dirty job."

"Oh?" The duros snorted, "And who told you that?"

"My wife." Teri said simply.

Cad Bane roared with laughter, "Is that who?"

Teri was suddenly very thankful for the fact there was no one else in the cantina. "Yes." He answered.

"What was her name son?" The duros seemed sobered slightly.

"Elice Sein." Teri stated with a sigh. Silence evicted the duros' laugh.

"What did you say?" The words came from a cunning gravely voice. The duros was entirely sober now.

"Uh, Elice Sein." Teri repeated. The duros swore.

"She's married?" The bounty hunter snarled. Teri wasn't sure he liked the sound of that sentence.

"She was." Teri croaked out of his already too-tight throat. "She died."

"Poodoo. I owed her a favor." Angrily the bounty hunter swatted one of his glasses and sent it flying across the room.

"Doesn't that mean now you don't have to pay it back?" Teri tilted his head to the side in confusion, too curious not to ask a question he might regret later.

"No. It means now I owe you. Favors are passed to remaining family members." The duros tiredly rubbed his forehead.

Teri wasn't about to question the intricate rules and laws of bounty hunter society, because right now they were doing him a favor. "In that case then, Bane, sir. Think you could hack into Coruscant's memory banks?"

**

* * *

**

**Two Years Later…**

An eight-year-old Hope balanced her mathematics book on her left knee, and her worksheet on her right. She was advanced by two years in her studies, thanks to what she'd learned at the Temple, she was not only ahead academically, but socially. She, unlike other human children, was able to converse easily with non-humans. It wasn't just that she was unafraid of them—she certainly preferred them to many humans—but that she knew their social code, and she could read their expressions.

It seemed at long last when Hope closed her book and tucked her worksheet away in its folder. She heard her father come into the room.

It was a simple living room, open to the kitchen, and leading off to the bedrooms, bathrooms, and study. Across from the couch was the holotable, where one could turn on the holonet and see one's favorite shows. Beyond the holotable was the front door that led from the apartment, to the landing platform. It was unusual that they had a landing platform. Most families shared a common platform with other families. But Teri was a top journalist, and took risks to get the newest story, and that had its benefits.

Teri came behind the couch and kissed the top of her head, "Homework done?" he asked. Hope tilted her head back to look at her father, her long brown hair tickling her shoulder blades.

"Finally! It took _forever_!" Hope wrinkled her nose, "I wonder why they assign us so much."

"Why don't you write a column on it?" Her father asked.

As the daughter of a journalist/reporter, Hope knew much when it came to writing.

"Maybe I should!" Hope groaned. Her father chuckled and then looked at his watch.

"Ah! Look at the time! I'm going to be late, and your Uncle won't like that." He muttered.

"He never does." Hope remarked absent-mindedly on her "uncle". He wasn't _really_ her uncle, he wasn't even human. But that didn't mean that he wasn't family. Though "Uncle" had never really fit him. He worked close with her father many times, sometimes following her father on his reporting ventures, sometimes letting her father tag along with him. In whatever way, it seemed the cold-hearted killer had found a soft spot in his heart—if he even had one—for Hope and Teri. _I heard that some people believe in Guardian Angels, protectors of lost souls, or dead Angels from the moons of Iego who spend their after-life guarding the living. I guess that makes Uncle Bane our Guardian Demon._ A loud knock sounded at their front door.

"That would be him. Hope would you get that? I've got to grab my holocam quick."

"Sure Dad, no problem." Hope jumped off the couch as Teri ran back to his bedroom to get his holocam.

As Hope approached the door, she heard another knock. _Uncle only ever knocks once._ She stopped, her hand resting on the open button. The knock came again. Although Hope was far too short to see out the eyehole, she could still—and sometimes did—sense people through the Force, in her primitive way. She closed her eyes and stretched out her senses. Not one but seven warm shapes were behind the door. Hope gasped. She knew none of them were friends of hers. There was no Uncle. Uncle Bane had a specific shape in the Force, like a tunnel that had been bent back on itself too many times, you could never outsmart him. No, these people were tall, she could tell that much. But nothing more, and she didn't need to. They'd acquired a new name since the Empire's birth, _Stormtroopers._ Hope sensed Teri come up behind her.

"Is something wrong Hope? Why haven't you let him in?" Her father tilted his head to the side.

"It's not him Dad. It's not Uncle. Its…" she took a deep breath, "Stormtroopers."

"How can you tell? You can't see through the eyehol—" her father cut off his sentence, "Oh."

"Dad, what do we do?" Hope bit her lower lip with her teeth.

"I'm getting you out of here, first and foremost—"

"No Dad, you can't." she held up an eight-year-old hand to stop his next sentence, "They have more troopers guarding the perimeter." Hope watched her father's face grow pale.

"Then I'll hide you." He whispered, with a sad smile. Hope was set to protest when Teri held up _his_ hand. "It'll be safer for both of us."

Hope sniffled, she was so scared. "Okay Dad." She whispered.

Another knock came, this time accompanied by a stormtroopers yell of; "This is Coruscant Security Force. Either open the door, or we'll break it down!" The booming voice chased Hope to the edge of tears.

"Come on dear." Teri scooped her up, his voice was surprisingly calm. He went into their kitchen, and opened a cupboard; it was empty at the moment; the weekly shopping still undone. Then Hope's father set her inside. Just before he closed the door, he whispered, "I love you Hope. You're my daughter, never forget who you are." His face carried resignation, determination, and love. It would be an image that Hope would hold in her mind for the rest of her life.

Dents prepared to give the door its final kick that would launch it off its hinges. Instead, his foot almost connected with the man who opened it.

"Um, sorry, I was in the bathroom…" The man's expression looked confused as to why there were seven stormtroopers at his door. "Why—"

"Because Mister Teri Sein. You have violated the law." The trooper watched the man's expression morph into one of confusion, but his eyes told a different story.

"How? What do you mean?" Sein took a step back, startled.

"You're last article criticized the Emperor. That is not allowed." Dents repeated what he'd been told, _like a droid._ Dents thought.

Sein's eyes, that had moments ago seemed to reveal guilt, now showed true confusion. Dents wondered if he was beginning to lose his touch on reading people. "What? But we have the right to speak freely!"

"Not anymore." Dents shook his head. "The Emperor has suspended those rights." Dents replied firmly. "I'm afraid you have to come with us sir."

"I see." Sein responded his face had gone slack and pale. The troopers escorted him to his trial.

The trial was short.

The accusation was speaking.

The jury was the Emperor.

The verdict was guilty.

The sentence was death.

Hope had been holding her breath. Straining herself to her limits, she had clung to the warmth that was her father. Followed his progress, where he was. She had kept breathing as long as that warmth was there.

And then it slipped away.

Hope felt herself stop breathing, the warmth had melted, become a pool that was sliding through her fingers. "NO!" she shrieked, "No! No, No, NO!!!" Her voice was an ear-splitting wail.

Her father was dead.

Hope kicked the cupboard door open with her feet; she tripped on the bottom of the cupboard in her rush not to feel _trapped_. She landed on the kitchen floor. Panic took her, tears couldn't chase away the pain. She scrambled to hear feet, and looked around. _What now?_ She wondered. Then she heard the door open.

A kind of primal fear gripped Hope as she hurriedly submerged herself in the Force, and sensed a fuzzy-shape-that-was-not-Uncle coming through the door. Desperately, Hope looked for a place to hide. The cupboard would not save her this time; this time was a thorough search. Hope's eyes locked on their garbage chute, she looked up at the ceiling in disgust, and then threw open the little hatch and jumped in.

After she'd slid along the greasy tunnel, Hope landed with a _smush_ in unrecognizable substances. She practically swam through the stuff to reach the wall, as she looked around; she spotted a little to her right a maintenance door, for the engineers who sometimes came through here.

Hope sighed and inched her way the door, then she jiggled the door handle a bit until the door swung open. Hope got up on what appeared to be a street. It was familiar to her, from a time when she had been only six. She breathed deeply, and instantly regretted it. The fumes from the garbage hung heavy in the air, disgusted, she pulled the door shut.

"Hey, you!" a voice bellowed. Hope spun around. There stood about five boys, each taller and older than her by far.

"Me?" Hope pointed at herself.

"Yah, you!" the same boy shouted at her, "You're in Hawk-Bat territory!" Hope rolled her eyes, she'd just lost her father; she didn't need this.

"Oh really?" she snorted, "Well sorry, I was really just passing through."

"Maybe you don't get it." A boy with an irritating nasal voice said, "Once you come on our terf, you don't leave!"

"Guys, just leave her alone—" One of the boys pleaded.

"Oh shut up!" The first boy growled, "Don't you know what kind of payment the boss gives us if we bring one in?" The third boy sadly shook his head.

"Um, excuse me. But I have no intention of going anywhere." Hope met the eyes of the first boy, deciding he was the leader, "So bug off!"

"Oh, I'm so scared." The first boy snorted loudly. Hope felt two sets of hands clamp onto her upper arms, the other two boys had come behind her while she was bantering, "But maybe you'll reconsider."

"Hey! Let me go!" Hope writhed, she was the "niece" of a bounty hunter… she knew how to defend herself, but right now, she was panicking.

The first boy laughed, then he made a hand signal and the two boys began dragging eight-year-old Hope to somewhere she didn't want to go. "LET. ME. GO!" she yelped, she started yanking hard on the unforgiving hands. The boys, except the one, just laughed. That one walked with his head down in shame.

The entire way, Hope never gave up the fight. But it was in vain. Before long, she was dragged to a storm drain, and then dropped down. She had no chance to escape; hands quickly seized her arms again. It was then that her horrors truly began.

"We've got a live one here!" One of the boys holding her arms teased. Hope kicked his shin for the tenth time in retort. She began to look around her, faces shone from the shadows that threatened to swallow them all.

"Let me see." A deep voice resounded. A greasy haired and overweight human man walked over from the deepest shadow. Hope sucked in air as the crude excuse for a sentient sized her up. Then the man's lips curled up in a cruel smile and he turned to speak at—not to—her, "Welcome child, to the Hawk-Bats. We're the best thieves in all of Coruscant."

Hope gasped inside, _So this is a child-thievery ring!_

"Numa!" he bellowed, and a young twi-lek girl came running out with a sharp unfriendly looking device. It was a bulky tube filled with liquid, that tapered off into a sharp and slightly jagged tip. The man snatched it from the twi'lek girl, and then he thundered over to Hope and grabbed her wrist. "Once you're in. You don't leave." He jabbed the needle into her arm, Hope bit her tongue against a scream. "Those are nanobots. If you lift one finger against the Hawk-Bats, they'll kill you. Do you understand?"

Hope's arms were dropped, and she clutched at her stabbed arm, blood pooled from the wound. But then she looked deeper, she looked in the Force, and found the tiny bots, little specks of dullness, connected to a control that was far, far away.

She could feel the nanobots through the Force as they spread their way through her veins. And as they spread, she watched her fate seal itself, watched as both her regrets and her dreams both flickered past her eyes. She wanted to cry, to wail; but she couldn't, her tears were lost. So was Hope.

"Now." The big man wiped his greasy palms on his pants, "What's your name girl?"

She met his dirty eyes, she wanted to say, _My name is Hope._ But that was a lifetime ago, that wasn't her name anymore. It was just a name that could be tracked, a good lie. She searched frantically for a name that fit. And the only thing that fit a dirty life was a filthy lie. "My name is Teri Ecile." _Start sleeping with one eye open._

* * *

My apologies if this chapter is a little jumpy!

Things to notice: Ecile is Elice backwards.

A thanks to My Lady Vader, darkangel1994, The Name Is Unimportant, and Queen for your reviews!


	6. Chapter 6 A Playmate

**I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS!!!**

* * *

The boy who had asked for her to be allowed to get away…his name was Gate.

The first boy who had spoken…his name was Wester.

The second boy who had spoken…his name was Whin. Pronounced like "whine".

The other two boys were twins…their names were Tem and Pite.

Her name was Teri.

* * *

"So, you see that couple walking by over there?" Gate pointed to two twi'leks walking in the middle of the street and holding hands—and probably drunk.

"Yes." Teri muttered, "I see them. I'm not blind." She ended in a growl.

"Well, I know that! It's kinda a question ya' don't answer. Ya' know'wa I mean?"

"You mean it's a rhetorical question."

After Teri had been "initiated" into the Hawk-bats last night, she'd fallen into a restless sleep. The next morning—this morning—she was learning how to steal. Gate had volunteered to teach her how. Already, Teri was beginning to see the differences between her, and these children; she knew more for one thing.

"Is dat'wa it's called?" Gate gave her a gaped-tooth smile, "Thank'fer tellin' me!" Gate's cheer was as forced as her participation.

_I don't have an accent for another._ "Whatever." Glowered Teri. Then she heard Gate cuss. "What?" she snarled.

"While we was talkin', the couple got away."

Teri snorted, and sarcasm dripping off her tongue she stated, "Pity."

* * *

He was usually good at reading people

But not Teri. Teri made no sense to him. She was driven not by anger, nor hatred, nor love. Yet she strove for something…_greater_. That was the only word he had for it. Sometimes people from the upper levels of Coruscant got stuck in the Hawk-Bats trap, but they broke quickly, and died even quicker. Teri obviously didn't come from down here, and—as it usually happened—she was broken.

But here came the difference; she had broken herself before this place could. She had let herself go out with a bang, simple and cold. What seemed to be left in her place was deaf to emotion. Not anger, but annoyance. Not joy, but amusement. Not sadness, but regret. Not strength, but pride.

She frightened him.

She was only eight years old.

He shivered, sitting in the shadows as he and the girl were. They'd let a couple of Twi'leks get away some time ago.

Gate had done it on purpose.

Gate had the unfortunate quality of wanting to protect everyone he came across. Every new initiate of the Hawk-Bats had found themselves under his wing. He sheltered them, and tried to teach them to be kind, and in the end when—if—they grew older, the life lessons planted on them; not by him would grow as well, and like a poison their cruelty would spread.

It was in this way that Gate found some salvation, some purpose, in these teachings that he attempted to pass on. And the first lesson he always taught, was even though dues were due by the end of each day, to wait for deserving victims to come by. Almost everyone he tried to teach failed that lesson. But not Teri, she seemed determined to defy the Hawk-Bats at every turn—and ignore the consequences while she was at it.

That's what terrified Gate; her defiance.

* * *

It had taken Teri awhile; but finally she understood what this Gate—what kind of a name was that?—was doing; he was letting them get away. _I guess there's a lesson in all this. Some great deeper meaning or the like._ Dues could matter less to Teri, whatever punishment greeted failure, it was far less worse than the mental punishment she would bring about herself from thievery. _I am not a thief. So, if I am not a thief, then, what am I?_ The question nagged at the girl for awhile, before she easily discarded it. _That doesn't matter._

Teri sat back and watched as more and more people came by, and Gate chose to let them go, with excuses like, "They won't have anything on them." And, "We'd be best to leave them alone." She thought him pathetic; if he didn't want to make victims of innocents, why not just say so? Why mince words?

Finally, she'd had enough, "Look, Gate. If you're going to let everyone go then by all things tell me! That way I just sit back and relax, and so can you!" Teri snapped, ending with the grind of her teeth.

"Oh." Came the soft reply.

Teri relented and sighed, "Look, I'm not mad, and it was really nice of you to take me under your wing and all, but just be straightforward with me. This isn't a job, it's a life. And I'll leave toying with words to the pros." Teri took the quote right from something Bane had said to her father one day—when her father was trying to be politically correct while mentioning the kind of work her Uncle's latest client partook in.

"Hmm." Gate thoughtfully narrowed his eyes, "Well alrigh'ten. A'v no intention'a muggin' no'un til'we come cross a crook."

"My friend, I do believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

* * *

**Six Months Later… Teri and Gate's friendship has grown to a brother-sister like one. Gate is now fourteen, and Teri is nine. **

**The Hawk-Bats have hit hard times, but they don't reach Teri and Gate, who have adopted a different system for paying the daily dues than everyone else; cat burglary. A dangerous and often deadly practice in the undercity of Coruscant. **

**Teri has explored her skills in the Force. She can only do what she could do before; sense. But her skills in that area have grown to be as good as most elder Padawans. Although she can't move objects, she has found more mundane ways of "getting around".**

Teri leaned against the wall with a contented smile. She was by her greatest friend, she'd lived to be nine, and they already had their dues for the day; this was as close to bliss as her life got. Then for inexplicable reasons she sat up, looked above her, and did the loudest facepalm known to sentients.

"What?" Gate followed her gaze, and his eyes registered nothing.

"Gate, we've been sitting in front of the G.W.B. for the last five hours."

"GeeDubyaBee?"

"Yes, the G.W.B." she looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, "The Galactic Wide Bank? Ring a bell?"

Gate shook his head in confusion, "No. Why'ud it?"

Teri's jaw dropped open, "Because it's the Galactic Wide Bank! The most corrupt bank in the entire galaxy! That's why!" Her father had written several ignored articles on the thing.

Gate frowned, and looked over at her, "Why'ud I need'ta know'bout some bank? I don't got no money."

Teri sighed, "Never mind." Then she rolled her eyes, "I'll just tell you, the bank is really corrupt, but they do keep credits behind the register." She beamed.

Gate gave her a weird look, "And how we gonna rob a bank?" he looked up at the sign, and blew shaggy, dirty redish hair out of his face.

"We don't have to. This one's been outofbusiness for sometime." Teri knew that outofbusiness meant that the company was no longer operational. What she didn't know was that it was three words.

"So, wu'dn't some'un have beat'us to it?" Gate squinted at the sign. "By da way, how'd you know i'twas a bank?"

Teri looked over at him, "Gate, do you know how to read?"

"Ah, no." The boy answered her, it seemed to Teri that no matter how long she'd known Gate, she would still be surprised.

"How many people do you think down here do."

"Ah, not many."

"And of those "not many", how many would go in and get the money?"

"Ah, none."

"Exactly." Teri finished triumphantly. She smiled at Gate with a bit of pity, "Remind me to teach you how to read." Then she leapt to her feet, and helped him up, "Now give me a lift to that window right there." She said pointing.

After some struggle as to what to do, Teri had her fingers firmly gripped on the ledge, it was a tiny ledge, and it wasn't really to a window—as she had originally thought—it was rather, something meant to look like a window. Security and all. _Dang it, how do I get in now?_ That's when Teri remembered the first time she'd gone from lower Coruscant to upper Coruscant—windows were higher up.

Dangling from the ledge of the "window" however, Teri wasn't really sure _how_ to get up. "There are windows up farther!" she called down to Gate, "But I can't reach them!" She heard some odd sounds, they ended somewhere to her left; and when she looked over, she found Gate clinging to the wall, his fingers and now barefoot toes firmly wedged in the cracks.

"Here's a way!" he grinned.

Teri gave him a look of disbelief, "How'd you do that?"

Gate shrugged, "I jus' do, ya'know?"

Teri gave him an exasperated look, "No Gate, I don't know."

"Well, jus'grab onta da cracks." Then he smiled big, "Jus'pretend dat yur a Jedi ur somethan'." Gate's expression made it out to be a joke, but it was something Teri could relate to.

"Like a Jedi, huh?" she swung sideways a bit, and clutched her right fingers into a solid groove, then started working the rest of her over until she was in a similar position to Gate. "The cracks in this wall are huge!" She laughed, and they were, the cracks were so huge, and so deep, that it was literally like climbing a ladder.

"I know!" Gate smiled, "I've never'one up too high. Never'a reason ta, you know?"

"Yah." Teri grinned, "I know. But now we've got one, so c'mon!"

It was a slow procession, and they slipped more than a few times, but the trouble only started when they'd gone higher. "Uh, Gate, we have a problem."

"I know." The boy groaned. "Da cracks'are dissapearin'!" And they were, as the two got higher up, the buildings were nicer. This was a problem.

"This stinks, just a little farther up and we'd be at a window! I don't know if it's open or not, but if it isn't, we'll open it!"

"It'll have bars on it." Gate sighed.

"I don't think we thought this plan through very well Gate."

"I think I agree with ya' Teri." They hung there for a moment, not really sure what to do next.

Then Teri had an idea, "Gate, how wide do you think that window ledge up there is?"

"Whada'ya mean?" Gate asked.

"I mean, do you think if we made it up there, you could boost me to the next window up?" If Teri remembered correctly, every story you went up, the bars on the windows got farther apart.

Gate frowned, "I think'I can, dough yu'd have ta stand on ma shulder's. I wudn't be able ta do anathang with ma hands! Have ta brace'em against da winda an'all!"

Teri smiled, "That works fine!" she called over to him.

Gate, in a feat of insanity, managed to grasp a hold of the half-foot wide ledge (so conveniently wide, I know) and pulled himself up, then, twisting around, he managed to give Teri a hand.

"Thanks Gate." Teri sucked in lungfuls of air. She then balanced her foot in one crack, and swung the other onto Gate's shoulder, an incredible feat, seeing her height and all. Then, she grabbed onto the window ledge and center herself on the boy's back, following that, she stepped on the top part of the window ledge, and shakily raised herself up higher, hands holding death grips on any miniscule crack her fingernails could wedge themselves into, until her hands were high above her head. She looked up, she was still a full foot short of grabbing the other ledge, _I'll have to jump it, _she reasoned, then, taking a deep breath, she bent her legs and—she couldn't do it. Old fears surfaced and wouldn't sink, she couldn't get past them. Calming herself, she used a trick that Younglings at the Temple had been taught from an early age; Jedi Flow. She calmed her mind, and imagined the Force rushing through her, loosening knots of memory until they vanished.

Then she jumped.

* * *

Gate's eyes flew open in surprise, Teri's weight was no longer on his shoulders. _Oh no! She's fallen! She's died! She's—_ Teri looked up as if to beg the Force for mercy, and was greeted by a shoe dangling in front of his face. "Teri?" he asked the girl, who was now scrambling onto a ledge twice as wide as the one he was on.

"Yah, it's me. I'm gonna break the window, then find something to haul you up with, just gimme a click." He heard the sharp sound of broken transparisteel—the cheap kind—a couple grunts, and then some rummaging. Perhaps five minutes later, a skinny rope was produced. Begging the Force for luck, Gate tugged on the rope to find it securely tied to something. He then quickly hoisted his way up.

Looking around, he didn't see her anywhere, so he asked, "Teri?" to the dark room lit only by the eternal darkness of Coruscant.

"Over here. I think this place is an office suite of one of the executives." Teri smirked, "Nice and plush, eh?"  
"Oh yah!" Gate grinned. Then he frowned, "Where'd you find da rope?"

"It's not a rope! It's for a curtain, it ties it back!" Teri exclaimed.

_I just placed my life into the hands of a curtain tie._ Then lights came on, and he saw Teri standing by the light-switch. The two of them laughed awhile longer, when Teri skipped around behind the desk, where a high-back chair sat.

"This is a nice big squishy chair, and I'm gonna sit in it!" she joked, then she spun the chair around to face her. Her hand dropped from the seat, which kept spinning until Gate saw its contents.

"He's dead." Was all he could say. A human skull stared at him with empty sockets. In shock, Gate walked up the desk, where he saw a small holo projector, which as he neared, flickered on, a clone showed up on holo.

"The scene you have witnessed is punishment bestowed upon those who defy the Empire, any room in this building you go to, will be the same." Then the holo flickered out. Gate and Teri swallowed, and then seemed to make a unanimous decision that there was no dead body there, and there also wasn't a chair. They began digging through holo-slots, they found a lot of accounting holos, but nothing interesting. Then Gate saw something shiny, he pulled it out.

"Hey Teri! Whad's dis?" he asked. The nine-year old looked over at him from the holo she was hacking into, and her eyes grew wide.

"It's a holocomputer." She breathed.

Gate smiled, "Correction; it's _your_ holocomputer. Happy Whateverdayitis." He said, naming a much loved holiday in these parts; most didn't survive to see too many birthdays.

"Gate! I, I don't know what to say! Oh, no, wait, I do, Thank You!!" she squealed, she ran over quickly and gave him a hug. He handed her the holo-computer with a big grin.

"Well don't thank me too much there Teri" he laughed, "I don't even know how to use it!"

"But I do." Teri's eyes were alight with curiosity.

* * *

Teri had been thinking for awhile, of ways to change her situation. Most Hawk-Bats figured that to change things, you had to become the Boss, and to become the Boss, you had to "get rid" of the previous one. That was the mindset they'd been raised with.

Teri had been raised with a different one; first at the Temple, and then with her father; she had learned peace. The Temple had taught her, even in six years; _There is no emotion, there is peace._ She had learned to take emotion out of the equation.

"_Hope, violence is helpless, words can play, twist, and frolic around wars. Violence remains shackled by them."_ From her father, Teri had learned that words were playmates, and helped make bad situations seem horrible, or nothing at all. She had learned how to set the tone of her words, with an art and a skill honed by two years of living with a journalist.

From Uncle Bane she had strategy. She had learned combat as well, but really, she had learned strategy; how to lure prey into your trap—like an arachnid—without ever leaving your hideaway.

So I suppose you could say, that Teri wanted to play.

And so it was back in the lair of the Hawk-Bats that she began to type.

_The Boss will kill us if we lift one finger against him. Well, I'm lifting ten._

Teri typed and clicked, she rearranged, oriented, and played tag with her sentences, she was determined to make an impact of some sort. Then, with a resounding sigh of contentment, she summoned the interholo. She bit her lip in thought as she struggled to remember the name of the company her father had worked for. _Coruscant Daily_. She paused, sighed, and looked them up. From the looks of their website, she guessed they were close to bankruptcy. She smiled; that was exactly what she needed; a company that was desperate for something, anything at all. She browsed the site until she came upon the columnist section; where those who desired to get their column on the weekly holonews "Send Out" could try to be published. Taking a deep breath, she submitted her work under the pen name "Hope".

"What're you doing?" a nasal voice asked.

Teri looked up, "Oh hello slime, I mean Whin."

"Whatever." He snorted, "I said what're you doing?"

"Writing. What does it look like I'm doing you piece of poodoo?" Teri mimicked his snorting and pretended to look busy with the holocomputer.

"You can write?" Whin looked surprised.

Teri looked up, "Of course I can write! Can no one down here write?!" Teri sighed, "Do I have to hold classes or something?"

"Would you?" A second voice piped up, it was Wester.

"No!" Teri snapped. She still seethed at these two, six months was not a sufficient amount of time to cool her temper; or more accurately her annoyance.

"Oh." Wester was clearly disappointed.

Teri relented, "I suppose I could teach you the Basic alphabet some time." She waved her hand dismissively, but now she saw little faces coming out of the cracks.

"Would you?" A voice asked from beside her, Numa, who had been sitting there the entire time Teri had been writing. This was the first time Teri swore she had ever heard the little Twi'lek girl talk.

"Sure." Teri said hesitantly. She heard shuffling to her other side, and when she turned to look, she found Gate grinning at her.

"I knew'yad be a big hit round'here. What'wit ur fancy writin' skills' n'all." The fourteen-year-old plopped down beside her, "What'cha writin'?"

"A column." Teri sighed, she knew where this was going.

"Read it to us?" the soft voice of Numa asked.

"It's nothing you don't already know." Teri answered.

"Please?" Numa asked again.

Teri felt like she was doing a lot of relenting today, "Oh, fine." She took a deep breath, and began to read.

* * *

Okay, so I was pretty disapointed with myself on the last chapter. It was jumpy, discordinated, and had no character developement--aside from me killing off one of my fav characters. So I tried to do better this chapter.

The ghost is gonna show up next chapter. And do...something. Oh! And if there's a part where you don't know what Gate says--I'm not very good about writing accents--then just ask!

Teri/Hope/Rishy is going to get something sweet next chapter, and she's gonna give away something cold. Anyone who can guess what gets a metaphorical cookie!

A thanks to My Lady Vader, darkangel1994, The Name Is Unimportant, Queen, and Pirate King Elizabeth Swann for reviewing! That always means a lot to me!


	7. Chapter 7 Cold and Sweet

"**Coruscant is the shining emblem of the Empire. Its beautiful spires almost reach through the atmosphere. In the throng of the lively city, shiny, colorful hovercars zip past. Glistening metal walls decorate the sides of buildings, and bright glass windows turn the cityscape into a scenic wonderland. The people strolling on the walkways are well-fed and cheerful. They laugh, and they smile, and they talk. On the surface, it is paradise. But that paradise is as much a lie as the one you tell yourself everyday; that no one pays for your luxury.**

**"Beneath this pretty holo, is an under city, a decrepit ruin that holds lives in its treacherous—and often fickle—hold. Separating the denizens of this hole from the upper city is a cloudbank, and a series of lasers. Once you are below this cloud bank, the change is drastic. The first thing you notice are the walls; they're not metal, but duracreet with faded color that has been overrun by various graffiti. The next thing you see are the windows, they do not shine, but are covered in a film of grit.**

**"When you go farther down, you again notice the walls, now they have no color. Then you notice the windows, they have a bar right down the center.**

**"Then you go farther down. Cracks come forth in the walls, until they are so wide and deep, you could climb the walls like they were ladders. The windows gain bars, so many until you couldn't see out of them anyway; it's then that they disappear altogether.**

**"When you finally reach the ground—and if you're not immediately mugged—you begin to notice the holoadds. Compared to the classy ones you're greeted by everyday, ones that are well done, and well thought-out; these are sleezy; they're crude, but effective in getting their message across—if you know every Hutteese swear word ever invented that is.**

**"The schooling down here is nonexistent, so I really can't comment on it.**

**"That doesn't mean however, that down here you don't learn, child crime rings teach you so much; like how to give up hope.**

**"That child crime ring, it's where I am right now. Next to me sits a little Twi'lek girl; older than me, her face is a pattern of scars. "That's what they do to the pretty ones." I've been told. The holopad I hold in my hands was given to me by the teller. He's a good friend of mine, my best friend, and a partner in crime. We're the best. There is no question about it, except; why is that a mark of pride?**

**"Around me are the victims of the Republic's ignorance, shadowed faces that weep in the night, and murmur their nightmares to the dark.**

**"Where is the Empire? Why hasn't it come to save us from its predecessors cruelty?**

**"This is not a child speaking out against the Empire. It is a child seeking the Empire's shelter, not for herself, but for those who live their lives in fear of life.**

**Hope"**

Teri finished reading her column, and looked at the surrounding sea of faces. She read confusion, pain, longing, anger—thankfully not directed at her—and resolution.

"What do you think?" she whispered, softly, there was no need to speak loudly. For the first time in anyone's memories, the lair of the Hawk-Bats was as quiet as an abandoned monastery.

"It's…" Wester struggled for words, "what's glistening mean?"

"It means shiny." Teri had originally written her entire column with simplistic words, then gone back and replaced the simple words with words suggested by the holopad, which sounded more advanced.

"Oh." The boy answered back, then, "It's real'um. Not like'stuf'ya see round here."

After this a chorus of "different" and "wow's" came from various directions. The noise resumed.

Some time later, the voices drifted away. And Teri was left sitting next to Gate and Numa. The little Twi'lek girl was smiling; "_I_ hope. I hope that no one else has to go through this." She motioned to her face.

"Well I hope the Empire does something." Gate stated with a chuckle.

"Well, I hope for hope." Teri laughed lightly, it was a strained laugh, but it felt… carefree. She hadn't had that in a long time. Teri spoke with Gate and Numa for a while after that. Some time later, everyone drifted to sleep; they normally fell asleep wherever they were sitting when they're eyes began to droop.

Teri felt the solid reassurance of Gate's back against her own. They slept back to back as usual. Numa wasn't too far off, sleeping sitting up, back propped against the wall, with one eye open. Teri felt her eyes close, she was safe, she was surrounded by an old friend, _Gate_, and a new one, _Numa_.

Teri wasn't certain when she fell asleep.

Around 0300 hours, Teri blinked sleep from her eyes. Something had woken her up. She stood and stretched, as long as she was up, she might as well make use of it, and not bother trying to get back to sleep; which was a doomed cause.

The nine-year old child looked around her at faces aged to fast, just like her own. Children who bore scars of near misses, and tear-streaks of missing those near to them.

_This must end._ The thought entered Teri's mind. With it came a familiar hatred, and anger, that she had kept inside her since that fateful day six months ago; a lifetime to a nine-year old. She felt the anger fester and boil, she had let it grow for six months now. _This must end._ She sat down cross-legged in the middle of the lair's floor, like she'd seen Master Yoda do at the Temple.

Teri knew next to nothing about meditation, and what she did know was a comic mosaic of things from holoshows, and rumors that spread quickly amongst the Younglings about the topic. That wasn't going to stop her.

The child rested her palms on her knees, she knew the holoshows were wrong about one thing, you didn't hold your hand with your thumb and forefinger touching. It was with your palms open, facing the sky, as she'd seen Master Yoda do so often in the room of a Thousand Fountains; open to new ideas.

Then she began to clear her mind; she wasn't sure how to go about this, but just as she knew light chased the dark away, she did so for her thoughts. For her worry of hunger, she remembered being so full she could eat no more. For her anger, she thought of the joy that she'd shared with her father. For the sorrow that brought, she thought of happy moments with Gate. For the hatred of the Hawk-Bats leader, she thought of her column. Finally, from that she was given hope. She tasted and mulled over the hope, then she swallowed the sweet and rare treat.

Teri opened her eyes, but where she expected shadows, instead it was covered by a blue haze. The haze reminded her a bit of a leg, a booted leg. She looked up, and up, and up. Her head tilted back so that her brown curls tickled her back through her shirt.

"You!" she whispered angrily. The ghost seemed surprised by the vehemence in her voice.

"Yes, it is me." The ghost nodded. Teri growled low in her throat.

"You abandoned me." Her voice came soft, and more hurt that the angry retort she'd intended.

The ghost—infuriatingly and—placating spread his hands, "I saw no need to come when you were with Teri; when you needed me, down here" the ghost's hands took in the entire lair, "your anger and hatred prevented you from seeing me."

Teri sighed, "And my sorrow." Her voice sounded odd to her own ears; it sounded older.

Even though Hope had grown to age eight, and Teri to age nine, Rishy was still only six years old. Still a Youngling at the Temple, not a nine-year-old thief who wrote to try and change her situation.

"Hope—"

"That's not my name." she interrupted him, "My name's Teri." Her weary words hung in the air.

"Teri then, you will get out of here. I promise you." The ghosts rubbed his forehead, "But for now, you need to have an excuse for talking to yourself." He began to fade away. And as the ghost disappeared, the figure of Wester solidified.

"I was sleep-walking." Teri snapped. Wester just nodded and backed away.

* * *

Wester felt the cold lair-wall press against his spine. Teri was frightening. Something told him that when they'd dragged her here six months ago, she hadn't been herself. He knew that if they tried that now, she'd most likely kill every one of them.

Wester had done things he wasn't proud of; a lot of things. He had no confidence in himself, he wasn't very smart, and he wasn't very attractive, at sixteen, he didn't have much going for him. The one thing that kept him alive was that he was a survivor. Wester had never lived, he had only survived, and a kind of desperate survival at that. Teri on the other hand, she had lived, and lived well. That fact in itself terrified Wester; Teri had seen the _Other Side_, the Upper city. She came from a cultured world, where scarcity came only in mental things. Wester's back followed the curve of the concrete until his butt touched the floor. With a deep breath, he smelt the trouble coming on the wind, _Whatever it is, I'm going to survive it._

* * *

Rega sifted through the column's sent to her. She was an agent, and spy, for Cad Bane. Spies of Bane brought the bounty hunter news on the daily happenings of Coruscant. She had yet to move up his employee ranks much. At least she'd gotten out of traffic control and into a newsholo company. But still… She ran her hand through her gray hair. _I'm too young to have gray hair, and a face already destroyed by my own stupidity._ She ground her teeth together and read through the most recently submitted column. It was moving, had several grammatical errors, and clearly wasn't written by who it said it was. _A child living in a Thief-ring wouldn't know how to write._ It was then that she checked the pen name, _Hope_. Hope, where had she heard that before? _Cad Bane told us to look for her!_ It could be just a coincidence, but… it could also mean that Rega would get out of here. Briskly, she walked out of her small cubicle, and out into the news-companies decrepit courtyard. She pulled a small comlink out of her pocket. And dialed up the only frequency it had.

"Yes?" the gravely voice on the other end made her throat feel like sandpaper.

"Mr. Bane, I believe I have some information of value to you."

* * *

Teri had been distracted today. Some little tug told her that something was coming. _Perhaps the Force?_ If so, and if it wasn't just a rain storm… _Maybe…_ ruthlessly, she killed her line of thought. _Help has not come yet, why would it come now?_

She strolled alongside Gate, as they headed back the lair. They walked down the center of the alley, two ratty children, in rattier clothes. Dirty and grime covered. Their days were stealing, their nights shivering. _This is not childhood._ A voice whispered in the back of her head. She remembered last night, speaking with the ghost. Now she wondered if it had been a dream, an illusion. Yet all of today, it was like opening her eyes. Things she'd given up on changing, that she'd learned to live with in the past six months were falling away. _This is not childhood._ The voice growled, _This is not living._ Teri looked up, her eyes were greeted by darkness, beyond the streetlights, there was nothingness.

"Teri?" Gate asked, she didn't respond, "Teri?"

"What?" Teri finally whispered back.

"How long you gonna stand dere?" Gate wondered.

Teri realized she'd stopped moving, what was with her today? _I'm distracted, I'm dreaming in the waking hours._ Teri sighed and started walking again, "Sorry Gate, didn't sleep well last night. Weird dream."

Gate shook his head, "Weird'nough ta distract you? It must'a been weird."

Teri was already preoccupied in her thoughts.

* * *

Cad Bane didn't like responsibility, and most times when he wound up with it, he killed it.

But sometimes, as it was in the case of Teri and Hope, they were assets. Teri had had enough pull with the media, that Bane could get Teri to unwittingly cover the bounty hunter's tracks.

And Hope… Hope was a fragile Force-sensitive who's sense of right and wrong had yet to be shaped. Essentially, she was a once in a lifetime chance of invincibility. As long as "Uncle Bane" was shielded by his Force-sensitive "niece", who would take the trouble to kill him?

And so it was, that Cad Bane found himself in the Undercity of Coruscant.

* * *

As the entrance to the lair approached, Teri stopped where she was, she sensed, a few blocks down… twisted, bent backwards, cold, steel… _Bane._ The word slammed into her with enough force to make her take a step back. She could feel her face blossom into a savage grin. Gate stopped walking.

"Teri?"

"Go inside Gate, I'll be in before curfew." She whispered. Cautiously, Gate nodded and backed into the stormdrain, he gave her a terrified expression just before the shadows veiled him.

Teri walked over to the familiar blue Duros. His hat, though it shaded much of his face, could not hide him from the Force. "It _is_ you!" she squealed, as she finished her last three yards at a run, "Uncle!" as she got within a foot of his face, she saw that he was scowling. "Uncle?"

"Hope, I can't believe you got yourself into this mess." The blue Duros growled. Teri looked down, ashamed; then she saw what he held in his hand. It was a small device, and it was flashing vehemently.

"Uncle?" Hesitancy washed over her features, and she took a step back.

"Do you know what this is?" He snarled, gesturing to the device in his hand.

"No." Teri whispered.

"It detects weapons, any and all kinds. That includes nanobots." His words were sharp and harsh, they cut Teri's ears like knives. "And do you know what you have in you?" He didn't give her a chance to reply, "Nanobots. The deadly kind." His eyes looked at her in disgust, "I could have taken you away from here, could have gotten you out of here, but now if I do. You die, and I have no interest in hauling around a dead body."

"I'm sorry—" Teri broke off as she felt fear grip her throat, then she found a tiny shred of her voice and clung to it, "If we just destroy the transmitting device—"

"We? What we? _You_ got yourself into this. _You_ can get yourself out." Bane jutted his finger at her. Then turned around and began to walk away.

"Uncle wait!" Teri's eyes burned with tears, _I won't be abandoned again._ "What if I destroy the device! I-I can do it! Will you take me away from here then?"

The bounty hunter stopped, as if considering, then nodded, "But I won't wait here forever child."

* * *

Teri slid into the storm drain, and her feet hit the bottom. Then she walked the long tunnel to the cavern part of the lair. As soon as she emerged from the tunnel, she saw a shadow looming behind her. A sweaty palm grabbed her by the back of the neck and spun her around. "Teri. Teri, Teri, Teri." The Hawk-Bats leader stood before her. "Do you know what you've done?"

_Curfew!_ Teri's limbs shook as she attempted to speak.

"You stayed out past curfew." The wet voice hissed in her ear, "Do you know what the punishment is for that?"

* * *

Panic gripped her, and she dove toward the familiar state in which she could feel the Force. She clawed her way toward it, primitive fear driving her to a stare of calm.

That was when things stopped. Seconds became eternity. The warm spots became cool spots, and in her tormentor, Teri felt faint chill; and in the center of the draft that was her terror, she found something small… beating…

* * *

"Now, I'm going to make an example of you!" The leader roared.

Teri felt herself squeak something.

"What was that?" The leader put her grubby ear by her mouth.

This time, the whisper came out clearly, "Thank you."

The hand dropped her, "What?" the man stepped back.

Teri smiled, "For coming out of your hidey-hole. I promise you, I'll make it worth your while."

The Hawk-Bat leader put his hand to his chest, he felt a twinge, then he shuddered. Something was wrong, something was very wrong…

He dropped dead.

* * *

Qui-Gon looked at the scene in sadness. The child, in all her fear, and anger, and hate, had touched the Dark Side of the Force. Only she could save herself now.

* * *

Teri tilted her head to the side, she felt light, like a feather that would blow away in the wind. She felt _good_.

Then it seemed she'd dropped back down to earth. She felt heavy again, her neck was soar, her knees stung, and her head hurt something awful. She stood up and brushed the dust and grime off her shirt. "I hoped you liked your "while"." She sneered at the corpse before her.

As she walked back to the previous Hawk-Bats private section of the lair, people backed away from her. She felt smug about that.

Until she saw Gate and Numa backing away from her too. Her heart folded in on itself, _They're afraid of me?_

Hurt, she went into the small back "room". Teri looked around. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, it was a small device—a miniature satellite dish mounted on a black box. She went and grabbed it. The desire to crush it then and there was intoxicating… _This isn't you._ The deep rumble of the ghost whispered through the Force. Teri sighed, she took a swift breath and walked out into the giant cavern, she knew what she had to do. She held the device above her head.

"Everyone look this way!" she yelled. Heads snapped around, they'd all expected a change in leadership, but not an announcement. Once Teri was confident she had their attention, she began again, "Whether you realize it or not, this box in my hands is what controls the nanobots inside you!" She could have made an eloquent speech, but they wouldn't have understood it; a waste of words. "Now watch it die." She said without splendor.

Then she smashed the box against the ground.

It didn't break.

"Oh!" She hissed, and proceeded to jump on it, until it was smashed into a pile of metallic dust.

Then she ran for the opening, an explosion followed behind her.

* * *

I haven't posted anything for a long time! O.O I've been spending it all animating!

Oh well. This is a pretty dark chapter, Teri kills someone... and she's like, nine and a half... and the identity of the ghost (which most of you guessed, lol) is Qui Gon! Woot!

Congratulations to Queen, she guessed the riddle right; the answer was revenge! XD

A thanks to My Lady Vader, darkangel1994, The Name is Unimporatant, Pirate King Elizabeth Swann, and Queen for reviewing,

Your reviews always mean so much!


	8. Chapter 8 Pick Your Battles

Gate watched helplessly as Teri ran out of the lair. After what Teri had done, he had backed up a few steps, knowing the ensuing chaos after her departure. He'd seen what she'd done, and it didn't change the fact that they were friends. _Keepuna!_ He thought to himself, _I can't even get to the exit in all of this!_ Which meant he couldn't chase after her.

"Gate!" Came a shrill scream, he spun around. Numa was being backed up against a wall by Tem and Pite, her breath came fast and petrified.

"Numa!" he called out to the scarred twi'lek. He tried to make his way over to her, but was stopped by Whin.

"Where do you think you're goin'?" came the nasal tone. In six months, Whin had gotten bigger, much bigger than Gate.

Physically, he wouldn't be able to take Whin, but if he used his last resort…

Whin crumpled before him. _I didn't do that!_ Gate muttered internally. Now before him stood Wester; Gate prepared to take on the other boy when Wester spoke, "Gate, c'mon, we've gotta hurry if we want t'help Numa!"

His words jarred Gate, he didn't pause to ask questions.

Gate could see the twins, they were toying with Numa now, who was holding them off surprisingly well. The two boys came up behind Tem and Pite, Gate took a swing at Tem, and found himself thrown to the ground, Wester found a similar fate facing Pite.

Gate attempted to knee Tem in the stomach, the other, bigger, stronger boy had him pinned. "Say goodbye Gate, we're taking over now." Tem pulled out his vibro-knife, and prepared to stab…

_Thud!_ Tem's unconscious body rolled off of Gate, and he looked up to see Numa holding a big piece of rubble. Wester was next to enter his vision; he could tell Pite had met Tem's fate.

Numa offered him a hand, which he gladly took. "Thanks Numa." He said, "I owe you one."

Numa gave him a puzzled look, "Gate? You're talking—different."

Gate cursed under his breath at his carelessness and met Numa's, then Wester's eyes, "Look, there's no time to explain, I need you two to try and calm things down in here. I have to go find Teri."

A scream punctured the air, followed by a cry for help. Wester shook his head, "We'll try t'calm things down. But Gate, we need your help, Teri isn't going anywhere and this riot is getting worse. They listen to you Gate, _this_ is your fight, not Teri's." Gate gave him a helplessly angry glare, which Wester met dead-on. Gate knew Wester was right.

"But Teri—" He began.

"We'll all go look for her later, when we can make it out of this without getting killed." Numa said softly.

"You're right," he said in resignation, "you're right." _May the Force be with her._ He thought, then said, "We have to calm everyone down first, so they'll listen."

"How're we gonna do that?" Wester asked.

"We have to break up the fights too, don't forget." Numa said in her soft, yet demanding way. A terrified yell solidifying her statement.

"You're right." Gate said, he looked her square in the eye, "We have to find the biggest fight and break that up first, then we have to have a way to ensure that that doesn't break up into little fights."

"Why don'we hav'em help us? Giv'em a sensa'purpose?" Wester suggested. Numa and Gate gave him a incredulous stare. "What?" he demanded.

"You know." Gate began.

"That just might work." Numa finished.

"Can we not speak'in tandem please? It's creepin' me out." Wester stated.

* * *

_**It's a really short chapter. I haven't written anything in a while, because I've been busy with school, but now that it's summer, I should have more free time to write this.**_

_**As always, I love getting reviews, and they mean so much to me, so a special thanks to all those who have reviewed, My Lady Vader, darkangel1994, Queen, Moonstar 11, Pirate King Elizabeth Swann and The Name Is Unimportant. You guys rock! **_**:D**


	9. Chapter 9 The Shattered Child

Teri couldn't catch her breath. She refused to stop to try. She raced through the dank streets until she found the one that Bane had been in. _He's not here! _Defeated, she pressed her back against the wall of a building. _It only took me a few hours, surely he wouldn't have left after so little time…_

"So child, I assume you're here because you succeeded, because if you're here and you've failed…" she heard a blaster being removed from its holster. She spun around to face Bane.

"I destroyed the device, and killed the gang's leader." She said in a shaky reply.

"If you did, then you have nothing to fear, so why are you so scared?" Bane questioned; picking at her defense.

"Because you just pulled your blaster on me." She whispered.

"What are you talking about child?" Bane muttered, the Duros raised his blaster.

And fired.

* * *

It took them hours, but finally Gate, Numa and Wester managed to bring everyone to order. It was a bit chaotic still; unlike before, held together by the threat of the nanobots, there was nothing physically holding them together anymore, but still, there were no more fights. "Numa!" Gate shouted across the cavern, "Are there any serious injuries over there?"

"None too bad! Though there are some cuts that might get infected if we don't do something!"

Gate looked around the cavern, "I think Wester has the bacta patches!" Shortly after gaining some stability, Gate had gone into the former-leaders hidey-hole, and had discovered some bacta patches, whose due-date had occurred long ago.

"Great! So where is Wester?" Gate could see the distant image of Numa, standing with her hands on her hips, and most likely wearing a scowl.

"I don't know!" he waved his arms in frustration.

"I'm over here!" Wester finally piped up, from somewhere between Numa and Gate; "I got trapped underneath a Wookie!"

Gate took a second to think about that, "How in Sithspawn did you manage to get trapped underneath a Wookie?" Gate snapped.

"The Wookie decided it was nap time, and fell asleep." Wester said, dead-pan. Gate wondered for a second if that was some quip that really meant something cool; like Wester had broken up the fight by knocking the Wookie out, then Gate realized that this was Wester.

"Do you mean to tell me, that the Wookie seriously just said, 'Well, despite the fact that this cavern is in complete chaos, I'm going to fall down and take a nap'?"

"Yup." Said Wester, as he wriggled his way out from under the giant carpet. "You wanted those bacta patches?"

Shaking his head Gate shouted, "No, Numa wanted them!"

"Yah, I really would, if these guys over here aren't dead already!" Numa yelped.

"Sorry!" Wester shouted as he made his way over to the twi'lek.

Gate took the moment to slowly back out of the cavern, and took off into the streets of under-city Coruscant.

It felt like he had been searching for days, when it had only been a few hours; stress making time drag on. It was then he came across a particularly foul alley. He stopped breathing. _Teri!_ The thought raced across his mind, as he saw the small form lying on the street; face down in the dank pavement. Dead.

* * *

Teri looked up at her Uncle; she didn't hurt, nothing hurt. Her breath came in gasps. Then she turned around behind her; a small fish-like alien lay dead on the pavement behind her. "He would have killed me; you saved me!" Teri breathed a sigh of relief.

"You act as if I would have killed you. But if what you said is true, and you destroyed the transmitting device; then I may have use for you." The Duros held out his hand; "Let's go."

She took his hand and let him pull her up.

* * *

Gate ran over, and knelt down on the pavement, "Numa." He whispered, then he turned the figure over, to see a small fish-like alien, blaster in hand. _This obviously isn't Numa, which means she must still be alive somewhere!_

* * *

Teri walked into the cleanest place she had seen in six months. "This is the ship." Bane snapped, then pointed to the right; "And that's the refresher, no go clean up. You stink."

His words cut Teri like a knife. It was only now that she realized how filthy she had become; and not just on the outside, but inside too. Teri had stooped to cat-burglary, and begging. She become as filthy as her surroundings. Rishy would never have turned to thievery, and Hope was too proud to beg. But Teri would do anything to live. Teri was a survivor.

"What's wrong with you kid? Why are you crying?" Bane's harsh voice brought her back to reality.

"It's nothing!" she sobbed, and raced into the 'fresher. She ran in and closed the door, then pressed her back the wall and slid down it. She tried to collect the little pieces of herself. Shattered fragments of too many lives, and too many names. After a while, she stood up, and walked over to the shower part of the 'fresher, only to realize she didn't remember how to work the controls. She could feel herself breaking down again, ready to cry her eyes out; when she took a deep breath. That much she had learned at the Temple; to relax and be calm. She looked at the controls again, there was a lever; she flipped it up and water spouted from above, soaking her head with cold water. She pushed the lever to the left, and the water became colder, so she pulled it to the right, and the water became warm. _Patience; it's the only key that unlocks every door._ Her father's words came back to her. _You were right Dad, you were right._

After her shower, she put on some clothes that she found outside the 'fresher door. Not her plain pants and tunic. But a blue and green patterned silk shirt and pants made of some kind of durable fabric. They were luxury; and she knew it. She put them on and stepped out.

"They fit?" the voice came from her right. She turned around to find her Uncle.

"Yes, thank-you." She stated.

"You need a new name Hope." The Duros examined his fingers.

"I have one, I've been going by 'Teri'."

"Then that's no good; we can't have a way for anyone to find you."

"Not even Gate?" she whispered.

"Who?" the Duros snapped, finally bringing his head around to look at her. As Teri met his eyes, she realized that there was no way she could trust this man; he was a monster. "No one. What do you wish my new name to be Uncle?" "Uncle", the word felt like a chain, she might as well have been saying "Master".

"We'll go with…" The Duros tapped his jaw with a blue finger, "Nissassa." The bounty hunter seemed to choose at random; but Teri did not miss that "Nissassa" was merely "assassin" spelled backwards. Bane had not chosen that name lightly.

"Yes, Uncle." Teri almost ground out the word. She took one more look into his eyes. She thought of Gate, of Numa; and realized that this man would use them against her, if only to keep her in line. She saw that the only way to protect those she loved, was to forget them. To become someone else; someone who had no one to lose.

* * *

"As you wish." Nissassa smiled. _Wasn't I worried about something a minute ago?_ The girl couldn't think what it was, _It must not have been important if I don't remember it._ The important thing to her now, was that she had what she'd so desperately needed, a new name, a new face, a new life.

"I'll have my droid show you to your quarters." He gestured to a small and rather pathetic looking droid, two prongs stuck out of the back of its head.

"This way Mistress Nissassa." It scurried along. Nissassa followed. They entered a corridor and followed it until it seemed they had reached their destination. "In here Mistress." The droid gestured with his tiny metal hand. "You have a private refresher attached to your quarter, but it does not contain a shower. Your room contains precisely one bed, one desk, and one chair. Dinner is served in an hour. And breakfast is served—"

"Leave me." Nissassa dismissed the droid with a flick of her wrist.

"As you wish Mistress." She heard the droid walking down the corridor as she entered her room. It was, compared to what she'd had for the last six months; luxury.

It was only then; thinking about the last six months; that she realized how little she remembered of them. _No matter; it's like taking a shower, all the grime is washed away._ Nissassa began to giggle; it felt so good to be free.

What she still hadn't realized, was how much more of a slave she was now.

* * *

***sigh* Another short chapter! Though it is longer than the last one... **

**This is basically the last "set-up" chapter. From here on out, there'll be a bit more happening, than just Rishy/Hope/Teri/Nissassa trying to survive :) (Gosh, she's had a lot of names...which does have a meaning in the story)**

**A huge thanks to My Lady Vader, hoysterrule123, darkangel1994, Queen, Moonstar 11, Pirate King Elizabeth Swann, and The Name Is Unimportant for your reviews! They mean so much!**


	10. Chapter 10 Missing

**1 year later…**

Nissassa paused, staring at her four adversaries.

Commando droids.

She reviewed what she had been taught; she was too small to take them out by brute force.

But they were slugs compared to her. She unclipped her light-whip from her belt; activating it and bringing it to bear. She snapped it once playfully. Then she began to dance.

It was a twirling art; she slipped past, and around and ducked through the first commando's legs, then she pulled her light-whip tight; the 'whip sliced through the machine like a knife through blue-butter.

Facing her second adversary; she opted for an easier approach. She brought her arm forward and flicked her wrist; causing her light-whip to shoot forward and wrap around the droids ankle. She then tugged, bringing the droid crashing to his back; and leapt on the tin figure. Nissassa looped her 'whip around the commando's neck and ripped its head off.

Spinning around to face her next opponent; the light-whip came effortlessly forward cut to through it's torso in one clean movement.

The last droid came at her from above; descending from an incredible leap, it attempted to bring its vibrostaff down upon her head; but she wasn't there anymore. Within the millisecond of time she had had; she had rolled out of the way. With a careless gesture; the droid was decapitated.

Nissassa stood; panting a bit. That last droid had gotten a little closer to killing her than she would have liked.

The ten year old exited the training room; and entered the back room where Bane was hashing out a deal with a smuggler. Her latest exercise had been a show; meant to demonstrate what she was capable of. She scanned the smuggler's face; he had clearly been impressed, enough so that he didn't try to hide it.

Jaybo Hood was the smuggler's name. He came from the moons of Iego, he was eighteen years old; a fair pilot, a great mechanic; and the head of small-time smuggling operation that had pissed of the wrong people.

Nissassa's mission would be to protect Jaybo's ship—it was her first mission; she would remain on the ship; the _Angel_; until the ship made it back to the smuggling operation; where Jaybo's own men could protect it.

Nissassa remained in the room while the two worked out the kinks in the deal; carefully watching each expression and detail. When at last the agreement had been finalized; Nissassa exited the room without a word; and went to her quarters for a quick clean up, and to collect her things.

Among those things was Todo. The droid that Nissassa had first encountered on Bane's ship; and her only friend. In six months she had heavily modified Todo.

It had started out as small things; the droid had had one single prong sticking out the back of it's head; which made it nearly impossible for the droid to remain balanced; so she had made that into two smaller prongs.

Then she had been frustrated with Todo's short; slow legs.

So she'd made him taller.

However, after several failed attempts at that, she'd found that his body was just too small, and the droid couldn't balance. So she'd made him a quadruped, and had found to her delight that he'd been faster.

Then the thought had stuck her that he looked a bit like a Vornskr*; which suited her quite well—she had fond memories of owning a Vornskr holo-pet when she lived with Teri.

So she'd made a few modifications.

When Nissassa entered her quarters, she found Todo curled up on her bed; head on paws; powered-down. But as she stepped past the threshold he—she couldn't think of her only fried as an "it"—lifted his head. "How did it go, Mistress?" the droid inquired.

"Just fine Todo." Nissassa answered. There was one thing that she had done to Todo that she would never tell Bane about; she had made herself Todo's administrator; her commands overrode any and all other orders.

"Mistress, I have already taken the liberty of packing for you." The droid gracefully descended from her bed.

"Thanks." Nissassa murmured, giving the droid an inquiring look. "May I ask why?"

"Why?" the droid paused a moment—were he alive, Nissassa would have called it "collecting his thoughts", "Well, I suppose I assumed that you would receive the job, you are an excellent fighter Mistress."

"Thank-you Todo." Nissassa smiled a bit; Todo was a droid, he probably hadn't meant it to be a compliment, but still… it was nice of him to say. _A droid,_ she thought, _but a friend._

* * *

Jaybo Hood could tell his crew was weary of the bounty hunter. It was a friction that wouldn't help when his people needed to be working at full efficiency. He understood their fear; he simply couldn't tell if it was Bane, or the girl they were frightened of.

Jaybo started to walk to the airlock; where the child would come aboard, but felt a hand grip his shoulder.

"Please, Captain Hood; bring some security with you." He looked to see his second-in-command, Echo Torrent, with a worried look in his eyes.

"'Cho, don't worry." Jaybo said. "We hired her, she's not gonna kill any of us."

Echo lowered his hand; "I'm not worried about the kid. It's that Bane character. I've run into him before."

Jaybo instantly took on a new appreciation for his second-in-command. "You have?"

Echo nodded, "Yes sir. Back when I was a merc. He almost killed Resolute."

Jaybo mentally slapped himself. This was Echo; his friend wasn't easily worried, and would never be worried about a little girl. It also answered the question of who his crew feared. Even Jaybo had to admit, it freaked him out to think that Bane had almost killed Resolute…

"He's really that dangerous?"

Echo nodded, "I don't think the girl is a double-crosser, but Bane? He'd do anything for money."

"I don't doubt what you say about Bane. But think about how that little girl would feel if I brought security with me." Jaybo's face took on a sympathetic expression, "She'd feel like a freak." Echo nodded reluctantly, and Jaybo went down to the airlock. He heard the _clank!_ As the ships connected airlocks, and the airlock.

His first thought when he saw the giant metallic beast, was that Bane had decided to betray them. When the cat didn't lunge, his second thought was that the thing was mechanically stunning. Glancing at Nissassa, he gestured calmly to the droid. "You built him?" Jaybo never called droids "it"—unless they were battle-droids.

* * *

Nissassa looked at Jaybo suspiciously, "I modified him." She said simply.

"Oh?" It was an innocent question.

Nissassa chose to answer, "I got frustrated with how slow he walked." She mumbled. She was about to pick up her one piece of luggage, but found it wasn't where she had set it down. She looked at Jaybo who had lifted it up, and was beginning to walk down the corridor.

"So you made his legs longer?" the smuggler inquired.

"Yes, but he kept falling over." Nissassa and Todo were now walking side-by-side with Hood. "So I made him a quadruped."

The smuggler abruptly stopped, and gave her a surprised look; "Then you've modified him quite a bit." Jaybo sounded impressed.

Nissassa couldn't help but to brag a little bit; "His original designation was Todo 360."

"One of those?" the smuggler glanced at Todo, and she saw a look of wonder cross his face.

"Miss Nissassa; that is quite an impressive droid you have there."

_Is he trying to buy Todo from me?_ "He's a good friend to." She added edgily.

The smuggler took no notice; "I know what you mean, a good droid is often the best friend you can have." The smuggler gave her a warm smile, it was clear to Nissassa then, that fiddling around with electronics was probably Jaybo's passion. "Have you looked into finding some good processing units?"

_Is he trying to sell me something?_ "No, not really." She kept her eyes concentrated downward.

"Well, I'm impressed Nissassa. I'll tell you what, I'll give you some top-notch processors for free."

"Why?" Nissassa said before she could stop herself.

"He's a fine droid; I would find it a shame if he wasn't able to be the great friend he could, just because he doesn't have top-notch components." Through the Force, Nissassa could sense the smuggler's honesty. Which surprised her; in her year with Bane; she had concentrated so much on her fighting skills, that her ability to sense had all but disappeared.

_Jaybo is an honest man._ She thought, before smiling and nodding. "Thank-you."

It was in her quarters; as they pulled away from Bane's ship; that Nissassa felt the crew relax. _They don't trust Bane._ She mused. She turned to her side, and looked at Todo; "How're you're new processors working?" She asked her companion.

"Wonderful Mistress." The droid replied.

"Good to hear." Nissassa lay back on her bed, "You know what I want to do while we're here? I want to work on my Force-sense. In the year I've spent with Bane, well, my Force-sense has all but disappeared." Nissassa pulled her face into a grimace._ Why do I get the feeling that that's not the only thing missing?_

* * *

_It's been a year._ Gate thought, as he surveyed the cavern for one last time. _A year since Teri went missing, and a year since she freed us._

"What'cha thinkin' about?" A voice to his left asked. He turned to find Numa standing there. In the year that they'd been freed, Numa scars had healed considerably. Though Gate doubted that she'd ever be able to fully leave behind this dark era of her life behind; he wasn't even sure how she'd gotten here—he'd been meaning to ask her about that—but she was moving on, just like the rest of them.

"Nothing much." Gate mumbled.

"And that means you're thinkin' about Teri." Numa gave a sigh, and looked at the cavern as well. "Well find her Gate. You know we will." The twi'lek smiled. "C'mon, we're all boarding the ship now." She gave his shoulder a squeeze.

That reminded Gate; the entirety of the former Hawk-Bats were leaving here; leaving to fight the Empire.

With a sigh of his own, Gate turned around and followed Numa out of the cavern.

The only thing the Hawk-Bats were leaving behind was a short message, it was on the data-pad Gate had given Teri; which had been placed in the center of the cavern's floor.

**Teri Ecile,**

**If you've found this message, then you're alive. We're the on the ship the **_**Hope**_**. We thought it would be a good name; it's what you gave us. Please find us; we want you to come home.**

**Gate, Numa, Wester, Everyone Else**

**P.S. Sorry the message is so short, this data-pad has almost no memory left on it...**

**P.S.S We wasted the rest of the memory taking pictures! They're on here…**

* * *

**A huge thanks to My Lady Vader, hoysterrule123, darkangel1994, Queen, Moonstar 11, Pirate King Elizabeth Swann, and The Name Is Unimportant for your reviews! They mean so much!**

***Vornskr: A canine beast that could hunt using the Force, and had a slightly venomous tail. More info here:** ******.com/wiki/Vornskr**

**Note: This story will refer to another fic of mine; **_**Ahsoka's Fate**_**, in the coming chapters.**


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